Wednesday September 26, 2012 year: 132 No. 106
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thelantern OSU voters face unclear registration laws
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kayla byler Lantern reporter byler.18@osu.edu
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OSU coach Urban Meyer talked about upcoming opponent Michigan State during a Tuesday teleconference.
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As the November presidential election draws closer, amid the seemingly incessant campaign advertisements is another more bipartisan campaign working to get students registered to vote. However, for Ohio State students not from Columbus or Ohio, knowing what address to register at might be confusing. A student may register to vote at his or her school address “if the student regards that place as his/her residence and registers to vote. Otherwise, the student must vote in his/her home community if registered,” according to the Franklin County Board of Elections. Residence is defined by Ohio law as “the place to which, whenever you are absent, you have the intent to return.” If students claim their campus address as their residence, they must “intend to remain here indefinitely,” said Paul Beck, an OSU political science professor. OSU political science professor Richard Gunther said when students register at their school address, “their registration at their permanent address will eventually be canceled, so students should not attempt to vote there.” This definition of home and what students classify as their residence, can be confusing for many. “Voter registration laws are ambiguous when it comes to student voting,” Beck said. “Election officials have been lenient in their interpretations of permanency, allowing students to register at their campus address.” A voter’s residence determines which offices and issues they are eligible to vote on. This is particularly
Cameron Weimer / Lantern photographer
Laws about what address OSU students can use to register to vote are unclear to many. important in this year’s presidential election because many believe Ohio’s outcome will play a crucial role in determining who will be the next president. Some students chose to vote absentee rather than change the address of their voter registration while attending school. Austin Rausch, a fourth-year in computer and information science, is registered to vote in his hometown of Marysville, Ohio. Rausch said he has voted absentee in previous elections while being in school and plans to vote absentee in the November election. Kelly Hurlburt, a third-year in dance, said she has not voted in any election while at OSU and “probably won’t” vote in the November election. Hurlburt is registered in her hometown of Middletown, Ohio.
6A Brown runs on job
Andrew holleran / Photo editor
Lantern file photo
Democrat Sherrod Brown is running for re-election for his seat in the US Senate. Election day is Nov. 6.
Superpower of the pen
Comic book artist and writer Alan Davis is coming to Columbus for Ohio Comic Con this weekend.
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11th Avenue courts get makeover
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Republican Josh Mandel speaks at a campaign event for presidential nominee Mitt Romney Aug. 25 in Powell, Ohio.
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Economy is ‘No. 1 priority’ for Mandel
becca marrie Lantern reporter marrie.6@osu.edu
brandon klein Lantern reporter klein.340@osu.edu
Through cutthroat commercials and advertisements that have saturated almost all outlets of media, Ohioans have witnessed from the sidelines a fierce competition for a U.S. Senate position. This November, Sherrod Brown will fight to defend his coveted Senate seat against Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel. Brown, a Mansfield, Ohio, native, has held numerous positions prior to his seat representing Ohio in the U.S. Senate, including serving as the Ohio Secretary of State from 1983 to 1991, a representative to the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1982 and a member of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. He has held his Senate seat since 2007. Sadie Weiner, spokeswoman for Friends of Sherrod Brown, released statements from Brown in an email, saying he is “running for re-election to fight for every job, every day in every way I know how.” Namely: building upon successes in manufacturing with the auto rescue, protecting American workers and making education more affordable and taking advantage of emerging industries like oil and gas, and clean energy. Brown is also working to protect access to the ballot box, particularly for students and minorities, as well as women’s rights for health care decisions and earning equal pay for equal work. Brown was a strong proponent of the 2009 auto bailout. “I’m proud to have led the charge to pass the auto rescue package, helping to protect nearly 850,000 Ohio jobs,” Brown said in the email
With the upcoming November election, Republican Ohio Treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel has been campaigning to convince Ohio voters he should represent the Buckeye state over incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown. Though Mandel’s term as state treasurer does not end until 2015, the Republican had announced his bid to run for Senate in early March. Mandel did not respond to The Lantern’s request for comment. During his sophomore year at Ohio State, Mandel was elected Undergraduate Student Government president. “It’s very rare to be elected as sophomores,” said Taylor Stepp, current USG president. Stepp said Mandel “represents all viewpoints of Ohio State” and is impartial to both campaigns. Mandel was re-elected for a second term as USG president in 1999, another rare accomplishment, Stepp said. After graduating in 2000, Mandel joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he actively served until 2008. During that time, Mandel spent two tours in Anbar Province, Iraq, as an intelligence specialist. He attended Case Western Reserve University, located in Cleveland, where he received his law degree in 2003. In that same year, Mandel was elected to the city council for Lyndhurst, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb, where he served for two years. While Brown was running for Senate in 2006, Mandel took his career to the state level where he ran for the 17th District of the Ohio House of Representatives, in Northeast Ohio. Mandel served as state representative and was re-elected for a second term in 2008.
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Evacuated students pitched frozen food
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liz young Lantern reporter young.1693@osu.edu
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However, Hurlburt said she would vote if she was registered in Columbus. “It would definitely make it easier,” she said. An additional source of confusion might occur if the address that appears on a student’s driver’s license does not match the student’s election registration address. “To guard against that source of confusion, it would be best for students to bring to the polling place a copy of a utility bill with their campus-area address,” Gunther said. Thirty-eight states, including Ohio, and the District of Columbia have laws that incorporate some kind of student choice into where a student can register to vote, according to an article published in 2006 by the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Salisbury University in Maryland. “The student vote needs to be counted,” said Vytautas Aukstuolis, a second-year in public affairs. Aukstuolis is a student volunteer for the Obama campaign and works on campus getting students to register to vote. “We definitely do want (students) to know what their options are,” Aukstuolis said. Though he works for President Barack Obama’s campaign, he said he does not try to sway students to vote for Obama when they register. “I know I’ve registered a lot of Republicans,” Aukstuolis said. Obama has visited OSU’s campus four times in the last two years, his latest visit to Columbus was Sept. 17 where he gave a campaign speech in German Village. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has never visited OSU’s campus, but is scheduled to make a campaign stop Wednesday morning in Westerville, Ohio, about twenty minutes from OSU.
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Frozen food doesn’t smell too great when it spoils, and it spoils fast. That’s why when 1,200 students were evacuated from Park-Stradley Hall for three nights after a Sept. 16 water main break, some people were concerned. The building lost amenities such as hot water, drinking water, heating, air conditioning and electricity for several days following the break. The loss of electricity affected any food students were storing in their refrigerators. “It’s not a smell anyone would want to have,” said Dave Isaacs, communications and media relations manager for Student Life. Hall staff posted signs on doors Monday and Tuesday to tell residents to remove the food from their refrigerators, said Colin Amicon, a first-year in exploration. “(When we were out) they checked rooms, they
It’s not a smell anyone would want to have. Dave Isaacs Communications and Media Relations manager for Student Life checked for damages,” Amicon said. “They probably checked the fridges, too.” Isaacs said the smell would’ve been enough of an indication of abandoned food. “I am not aware that anyone went refrigerator to refrigerator to check, but had anything been left, we would have probably smelled it,” Isaacs said. Isaacs said students were requested to either throw the food away or take it to a friend’s to store it. At an event Friday at the Ohio Union, which was also closed the night of Sept. 16 due to the water
main break, students were welcomed back to their dorms with some food to help restock what they might have lost. Items like apples, milk, cereal and frozen mac and cheese were given out, Isaacs said. “We wanted to acknowledge that people lost stuff,” he said. However, some students said they didn’t see all of the foods Isaacs listed. “They had that party the other day at the Union and they gave us a bunch of canned foods and stuff, but nothing frozen,” Amicon said. For some students, that wasn’t enough. “I kind of lost a lot of money on all the food in my fridge, and my mom made me homemade stuff, and all of that spoiled, so it’s kind of unfortunate,” said Molly Simeur, a first-year in pre-nursing. Students were permitted to return to their rooms Sept. 19. Heating and air conditioning are the only amenities still not functioning after Sept. 21.
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